Life: Fisherman and the art

It is not really tourist area and not too many tourists you can see on the shore, but only the local people who work and live around. Unlikely the other beach close to the area that provides café and restaurant, but this is the place where people like me buy fresh tuna or other kind of fishes. This beach is Ulee Rubek Barat about 45 minutes by motorbike from my home. I brought my family here to buy fresh tuna directly from the fisherman, while enjoying the afternoon swimming.

I was a bit lucky to get a chance to see how they seal the 5 MT (Metric Ton) wooden boat. I took some picture of them while they were preparing to seal the space between the wood to avoid the leaking before they paint the boat. Normally, the boats here are well painted colorfully before they sail it for fishing. The material of the boat is from light wood for the wall and floor, it is named locally as (bak bayu limeeng = bayu limeeng tree). The main frame is made from hard wood “bak seuntang” (sintang tree) as local people mentioned the name.

Sealing Technique

Before the boat is painted, first of all the space between the boat must be sealed properly with wooden glue. It has specific technique to mix the glue with hardener and wood powder, it is important to mix with wood powder to make it more elastic and become stronger adhesive. Firstly, the space must be filled with hemp fiber (a rope made from hemp fiber). The ropes have to be filled into the space between the wood and hammered with chisel. This is to avoid the glue go through the other side of the space and reduce the amount of the glue. After the ropes are inserted properly inside the wood space and then the mixing glue is filled to cover the space. It takes 24 hours for the glue to get completely dry before it is scrubbed with sand paper for smoothing.

The fisherman is mixing the glue, hardener and wooden powder, do not look at the coffee please, because that was really good Arabica Specialty from Gayo High Land. I made a cup for him while I chatted with him to know the imformations...:D. I always bring my portable gas cooking stove and coffee when I go to the beach.

This boy is hammering to insert the rope into the wood space, before the glue is applied.

The owner of the boat is applying the mixing glue on the boat

Painting the boat

This is the last steep of finishing the boat, after the surface of the wood completely smooth, it must be painted with oil base paint. It is not only for getting colorful boat but it is mostly to protect the wood from the water when it sails someday. This stage is really crucial to select the color, it is importance since the color of the boat is as identity of the boat, when someone from the area sees the boat on the sea they will recognize the owner of the boat. The funny thing about the painting is art contest, contest without winner..:D. The owner of the boat will be so proud of their artistic decoration, some boats are painted nicely with anime character or so. As the photographs below;

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